When Paul Dillinger comes upon striped heirloom beans at local farmers' markets, he doesn't see a side dish. He sees a pair of pants.

"It's the process of taking an inspirational idea that's regional, exploring how it inspires color and translating that into a table of chinos," Dillinger, Dockers' new senior director of color, concept and design, said of his newest project - drawing the color palette of the 2013 Dockers line from the craft culture of San Francisco.

He was sitting in the living room of his sun-filled SoMa loft, which he describes, fittingly, as feeling "a bit like a runway." A quick glance registered Dillinger's outfit - gray Dockers chinos and a plaid gray tie paired with an intentionally distressed and paint-splattered white shirt and a gray-striped head handkerchief - and a backdrop of a slate gray couch and gray-checked rug. It was enough to make a fashion oblivious visitor wish she'd kept on her gray raincoat. At age 12, at his home in Spanaway, Wash., Dillinger saw a runway show on an episode of "The Phil Donahue Show" and became hooked on fashion. After graduating from Washington University in St. Louis with a bachelor of fine arts in fashion design, he traveled to Milan as a Fulbright scholar - the first person in history to be awarded a Fulbright in fashion. He later worked at fashion houses in New York for 16 years, then gave up his small Chelsea apartment - "it was shoes in the oven, you know, classic 'Sex and the City' " - for Dockers and San Francisco.

"I felt like I was getting out of jail," he said.

In addition to his duties at Dockers, Dillinger, 39, teaches fashion and design at his alma mater, where he impresses upon students the importance of sustainable design and respect for factory workers.

One day, the class discussion turned to occupational daguerreotypes - mid-19th century photos of people with tools of their trade. The students collectively decided on the proper outfit for a fashion designer: "Overalls with a tape measure stuck in the ruler pocket, and shears in the front one," remembers Dillinger. Half joking, he picked up a pair of scissors resting on the table and placed them in his pocket, then struck a pose. Southern sun streamed in the window and backlit him, and instantly, Dillinger became a modern occupational daguerreotype, in living, breathing color.

Paul Dillinger's objects

CUSTOM BOOMCASE PORTABLE SUITCASE STEREO SYSTEM

Fashioned in: A 1955 Samsonite suitcase.

Battery life: 10 hours.

On its nonaesthetic benefit: "It's all about repurposing an old object. It's junk, but it's pretty junk."

On putting it in the industrial loft apartment: "I needed something warm that would make it feel immediately homey."

Monochrome: Afolio of single-color paintings that express an emotion felt at a particular time/place.

On inauthenticity of small-scale folio: "This is a false representation of a false memory of a false place" - Klein never made the full-scale works, and the dates and places listed on them are not precise.

On his attempt to hang them in a straight line: "I got out my laser level and everything, but the framers made the cords in the back different lengths."

Why he doesn't mind that they're askew: "I like those imperfections. I'm not perfect. I like a shirt that's laundered but not ironed."